Quote · Empire: World History
372. The First British Indians: The Sisters Rejected By Queen Victoria (Ep 4)
Where this was said
Pauline's Mystery Solved: Death in the Pyrenees, 1941
At 52:23 · chapter starts 51:00
After the legal battle, Pauline simply disappeared. Lurid theories circulated: killed in a bombing raid, a concentration camp, a collaborator, a Resistance fighter. A 1950s historian asked Bamba what had happened to Pauline; she barked that she didn't know and didn't care. Then, years later, historian Peter Bunce received an email from a distant relative of John Torrie, Pauline's dead husband. The relative had been researching his family tree and found a French burial record: a foreign woman, 1941, in the foothills of the Pyrenees at the Sanatorium de Trespuy [1] — Anita Anand "For decades, no one knew what happened to Pauline after she vanished following the will case. Historian Peter Bunce traced her through a di…" 51:00 . Bunce spent months pursuing it and recovered both Pauline's death certificate and her last will. It said simply: death report of a foreign subject in France. She had developed tuberculosis in the late 1930s and had not told her sisters — not Sophia, not anyone. She died on 10 April 1941, aged 53, buried by French authorities with no mourners and no word sent. Like her father before her.
For decades, no one knew what happened to Pauline after she vanished following the will case. Historian Peter Bunce traced her through a distant relative's family tree to a French death certificate: she died of TB on 10 April 1941, at a sanatorium above the Pyrenees, buried by authorities alone, like her father before her.
Pauline Duleep Singh's fate was a mystery for decades until historian Peter Bunce traced her death to a sanatorium in the Pyrenean foothills on 10 April 1941, where she died of tuberculosis at age 53, with no family present.
Not one of Maharaja Duleep Singh's children — across both families — had children of their own. The Lion of Punjab's bloodline simply stopped. Sophia had purpose; Catherine had love and mission; Pauline and Irene simply evaporated.
